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[crisdecuba]

I only have experience with my brothers SP3 and a SP4 I got for work, but both had constant issues, particularly with DPI scaling of applications.

That's not to mention the god awful battery life, the constant thermal throttling (that's what happens when you don't have a fan), the weird issues with the thing not going into sleep mode consistently, and plenty of other seemingly random Windows 10 quirks I don't get on my desktop machines.

There wasn't a day that went by where I didn't have to face some kind of frustration when I had one for work. I swapped it for a laptop after a couple of months.

Primarily it was the DPI scaling issues that did it for me, personally. I just don't think Windows is ready to be used at anything but 100% scaling, and that's just impossible with 4K resolution screens that are 13" or smaller unless you have eagle eyes.

I love my surface pro 4. The DPI scaling issue is minor / rare in my experience, and no issues to speak of re the software / OS. Re: fans - doesn't the SP4 have a fan (albeit a small one?)

 

[Certinty]

SP4 is the best laptop I've ever had by a long way. I only regret not investing a bit more and getting a more powerful model.

 

[Norwegian_Imposter]

I love my surface pro 4. The DPI scaling issue is minor / rare in my experience, and no issues to speak of re the software / OS. Re: fans - doesn't the SP4 have a fan (albeit a small one?)

what do you mean DPI scaling? Like I know what it means but I dont know what you mean in that instance.

 

[ZOONAMI]

Dell xps 15 or alienware 13r3 oled over both.

 

[ponpo]

Is anyone using an older Surface Pro model in twenty seventeen? How's it holding up?

Contemplating getting a used 3 or maybe 4 but they are kind of pricey. Want something cheap to replace my current laptop.

 

[siddhu33]

Is anyone using an older Surface Pro model in twenty seventeen? How's it holding up?

Contemplating getting a used 3 or maybe 4 but they are kind of pricey. Want something cheap to replace my current laptop.

I've been using a Pro 3 with a Pro 4's keyboard for a few years now it seems...battery life isn't so great now but otherwise it's holding up pretty well. i5 8GB DDR3 256GB SSD model btw. I also added a 128GB MicroSDXC card for movies and other media so that I can keep the main SSD clean. It's got 2 cores and 4 threads, which seems to handle most things fine, and i've not had anything which I can attribute to RAM.

This model does get hot and the fan does whirr if you are using it for anything like gaming or video rendering or even watching H.265 4k video. In this case it may be worth pointing a fan at it or something if this kind of stuff is immensely important to you. Most of the time any heavy lifting I do is done by my desktop so I don't really mind.

 

[Norwegian_Imposter]

yeah the windows on this surface pro is good but I am sucker for the looks and quality of apple products plus they last a long time. My macbook pro 2012 is getting long in the tooth but to most people it would be perfectly fine even now these days.

 

[Alienfan]

Is anyone using an older Surface Pro model in twenty seventeen? How's it holding up?

Contemplating getting a used 3 or maybe 4 but they are kind of pricey. Want something cheap to replace my current laptop.

I've owned a pro 4 for almost two years now, use it multiple hours a day. Outside of some backlight bleeding initially (Microsoft gave me a replacement, no questions asked) and a couple of minor software issues, it's been great! On a full charge I get 4hrs worth of Netflix playback through the browser, the keyboard + pen work wonderfully still.

 

[ponpo]

I've been using a Pro 3 with a Pro 4's keyboard for a few years now it seems...battery life isn't so great now but otherwise it's holding up pretty well. i5 8GB DDR3 256GB SSD model btw. I also added a 128GB MicroSDXC card for movies and other media so that I can keep the main SSD clean. It's got 2 cores and 4 threads, which seems to handle most things fine, and i've not had anything which I can attribute to RAM.

This model does get hot and the fan does whirr if you are using it for anything like gaming or video rendering or even watching H.265 4k video. In this case it may be worth pointing a fan at it or something if this kind of stuff is immensely important to you. Most of the time any heavy lifting I do is done by my desktop so I don't really mind.

I've owned a pro 4 for almost two years now, use it multiple hours a day. Outside of some backlight bleeding initially (Microsoft gave me a replacement, no questions asked) and a couple of minor software issues, it's been great! On a full charge I get 4hrs worth of Netflix playback through the browser, the keyboard + pen work wonderfully still.

Hm alright. Don't do anything major on my laptop and would normally just get another used thinkpad or panasonic let's note since they are great for the price, but I want a higher screen res so I was contemplating a SP3 or 4 with an external KB as my daily machine. We'll see.

 

[biggersmaller]

I'm a big Apple fan. Have been since he Apple II. The Surface is a cool device, but I'm of a mind that even with great customer service - if you risk having to turn it in it's not worth your time to begin with and it probably won't have the legs of a pro.

 

[Michael F. Assbender]

All things being equal on how useful each device is for your specific case, I’d recommend the MacBook simply for its resale value.

Several years from now, when you’re ready for a new computer, you can sell your MacBook (if it’s in good condition) and likely make a decent chunk of change.

A Surface just isn’t going to hold that same value.

 

[PodcastFips]

I was looking at Surface devices for years, and when they revealed the new (boring) 2017 Pro, I bought an HP Spectre x360 13 inch (4K version). Best decision I made in a long time, might wanna look at that as well?

 

[Junior Mint]

I
Primarily it was the DPI scaling issues that did it for me, personally. I just don't think Windows is ready to be used at anything but 100% scaling, and that's just impossible with 4K resolution screens that are 13" or smaller unless you have eagle eyes.

I'm actually shocked at how horrible Windows scaling still is in 2017. Even something as simple as using 125% on your laptop screen and 100% on an external monitor causes huge issues with UI on MICROSOFT OFFICE 2016 of all things.

 

[crisdecuba]

what do you mean DPI scaling? Like I know what it means but I dont know what you mean in that instance.

The person I was replying to was referencing instances where an application doesn't scale up its text to account for the higher DPI of the screen, resulting in really small text on the screen.

 

[Norwegian_Imposter]

The person I was replying to was referencing instances where an application doesn't scale up its text to account for the higher DPI of the screen, resulting in really small text on the screen.

Thanks

 

[Micael]

Is anyone using an older Surface Pro model in twenty seventeen? How's it holding up?

Contemplating getting a used 3 or maybe 4 but they are kind of pricey. Want something cheap to replace my current laptop.

My brother has 1 SP4 that is turning 2 next month and it still works just fine.

Just wait for a good deal, I bought my SP4 i5 8gb ram 256gb ssd, second hand with just 3 months of use (so basically full warranty left) for 760€ with keyboard and pen.

That being said if you want to replace your laptop for another laptop there are better options than a second hand SP4.

 

[ss_lemonade]

Never Surface Pro. Surface Book or Surface Laptop, maybe, but I would never recommend the standard Surface line to anyone. Amazing concept, but terrible execution and full of problems.

How is the Surface Pro any different to the Surface Book, other than some hardware differences? Don't they run the same software? I use a Surface Book for work and run into random problems too from time to time. The most frustrating one is DPI issues where plugging it to an external monitor would sometimes turn everything extremely tiny

 

[Future]

How is the Surface Pro any different to the Surface Book, other than some hardware differences? Don't they run the same software? I use a Surface Book for work and run into random problems too from time to time. The most frustrating one is DPI issues where plugging it to an external monitor would sometimes turn everything extremely tiny

Surface pro 4 was the problem. At release there was tons of driver issues, sleep issues, wake issues, wifi issues, etc. Pro 3 had some at launch but nearly as much, and the pro 17 has been pretty solid so far.

 

[Norwegian_Imposter]

So I went with the MacBook Pro 15" and man I forgot how nice Macs can be. No regrets especially as I have my PC for Gaming